


The Last Dance

by alphadine



Category: Firefly
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-13
Updated: 2010-12-13
Packaged: 2017-11-05 07:34:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/403928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alphadine/pseuds/alphadine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>River's Nightmares come true</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Last Dance

**Author's Note:**

> Once in a while my jar of angst is filled to the brim. This is what happens when someone tips it over.

**Title:** The Last Dance  
 **Author:** Raven_40/alphadine  
 **Fandom:** Firefly  
 **Characters/Pairings** : River  
 **Genre:** Dark!Angst, lots of it!  
 **Rating:** P18 or NC17.  
 **Disclaimer:** If I would own them, I wouldn't write fics about them. I'd be busy getting 'Firefly' back on air. So, njet, not mine....  
 **WARNING:** Character Death!

A/N.:I don't know where this came from. Maybe some kind of Plot-bunny-flu, making them all angsty and such. This has to stop or else we're all beyond depressed soon!  
So let's get over with this (hopefully) final dose of angst.

Many Thanks to[](http://cedelede.livejournal.com/profile)[ **cedelede**](http://cedelede.livejournal.com/) for her beta at such short notice. Any mistakes that are still in it, are mine and mine alone.

 

 

**  
The Last Dance  
\--------------------  
**  
River sat in a chair, strapped to immobility, feeling the familiar sting of needles into her skin and the blurred conscience that the drugs pumped into her system provided.  
Only vaguely she registered all the Alliance scientists hustling around her until one bent down to look her in the eye. A smug smile spread on his face as he lifted her chin with one blue-gloved hand.  
“Welcome back, my lovely. Haven’t seen you in a while and, honestly, I missed my most-promising test-subject a bit… “  
Neither able to process what she heard nor to respond at all, she ignored the pain from the needles and probes and let her mind wander.

-.-.-.-.-

They all had gathered in the cargo-bay; counting what ammo they had.

The ambush had been fast and unexpected for everyone. Even River hadn’t been able to sense any of it; The Alliance had been able to shield anything the young reader would have been able to read.  
Retrospective River knew that it had been just logical. They had created her skills, had created her; they knew how to suppress her abilities, too. And suppressed them they had. Right there, the Alliance trained assassin hadn’t been more than a quivering girl, lost in her own nightmares.

Though Simon and his various drugs had managed to calm her down a little bit, she hadn’t been very helpful with the task at hand: Getting away from the Alliance. And despite every try and trick they had pulled Serenity had been surrounded quickly and it had been only a matter of time until a direct confrontation had been inevitable.

So they had prepared for the moment the Feds would enter the ship and everyone had known that this wouldn’t be a fight like the ones before.

The Alliance was obviously determined to get River back. The crew of Serenity was as least as determined to keep her. Both parties had been unhesitant to fight for their goal with any means necessary.

River remembered when she’d seen Zoe standing in the cargo bay, loading her gun, clearly accepting the likely suicidal decision the captain had made for all of them. Since the death of her husband her already sparse smiles had tended towards naught and sometimes she was more functioning than actually living.

‘And when you have no reason to enjoy living, death couldn’t scare you anymore.’ River had understood Zoe’s notion, she herself had been at this point before.

The captain’s motives had been different. His grudge against the Alliance was always present and most of the time affected his actions. But that the Fed’s still were chasing after River, someone he finally called family and who had saved his and his crew’s lives at least once might have been the last straw. He wouldn’t let them get her if he could prevent it. And if not, well, at least he could make it as difficult for them as possible. He’d surrendered to the Alliance once and was not willing to do so ever again.

Her brother Simon though had misunderstood the captain’s motives and thus hadn’t been so keen in accepting the captain’s words. He’d misread Mal Reynold’s decision as an outburst of selfish pride and pride wasn’t something that kept her brother going nor something he was willing to die for. Pride was dispensable for Simon Tam. He had been swallowing it down so many times in order to become the brilliant doctor he was or to save her, his beloved sister. And now there had been Kaylee, too. If not for him, then for the sake of River and Kaylee. There surely were other ways; there had to be; always had been, until now. Negotiation, maybe.

The captain’s words wiped away what little desperate hope Simon had been clinging to.

“Negotiations? ‘Bout what? You really think Alliance is gonna do something like negotiating? We’re lucky, we’re still alive. Pro'bly just because o’that precious sister a’yours. And given our situation now, she’s pro'bly the one thing they’re gonna ‘extract’ before blowin’ Serenity to pieces and us with her. But, if that’s their ‘glorious’ plan, I’m planning on taking as much Alliance hun dans with me as possible.”

Mal had gone back to loading and preparing, leaving Simon to his fears.

River remembered the sad look on his face when he first looked apologetically at her and then to Kaylee, whose face had been pale and signed with sheer fear, but she hadn’t complained. Her eyes had been huge when she silently helped with the inventory.

Jayne had come bolting down the stairs to the cargo-bay with a huge crate containing so much ammo and grenades he could easily have blown up Serenity himself the whole time. River remembered that she’d thought for a moment that they would have been better off if he had.

Of course Jayne hadn’t been fond with the idea of probably getting killed, too.

“Mebbe, we should try Doc’s negotiation plan first.”

“Since when are you and the doc agreeing over something?” Reynolds had halted in his actions again and looked at his gun hand.

The big mercenary had put on an innocent expression. “What? Overall we’d always been on the same page… right, doc?” He’d looked to the silent doctor for back-up but Simon had been too tangled up in his own worries to notice.

“You’ve tried to turn her in once. Didn’t turn out that well, remember? Can’t trust the Alliance,” the captain had quipped so Jayne had frowned and fallen silent like the others immediately.

“So this is it?” Zoe’s always so calm voice had broken the tense silence.

Mal had stood up and looked at everybody surrounding him. “Yeah, likely. There is a slight chance though, that we might strike them back when they enter and capture the ship docking Serenity. It’s probably faster than Serenity and if we’re lucky we might escape. But I won’t lie to you, the chance is really small and Lady Luck hadn’t been our friend lately. “

And said Lady Luck hadn’t been on their side this time either. When the Feds had stormed into the cargo bay, welcomed by the guns of the crew of Serenity, the Alliance soldiers hadn’t wasted any time with making prisoners.

First one who’d fallen had been her brother. His blood and parts of his smart brain had added odd colors to the printed flowers of Kaylee’s shirt. The mechanic had stood there for a second, horrified bafflement on her pretty features before another well placed shot had ended her life as well.

Poor Kaylee, River had thought, she had loved life so much.

When Simon fell, River had been roughly pulled away and into cover by Jayne’s large hand.

“Keep ya’r precious head down. Might be hit by a bullet, too. Would be a waste, don’t ya think?”

“Are you going to turn me in again? They might let you live in return.”

Jayne had ducked into cover and reloaded his weapon after he’d emptied it into the Alliance crowd. He had chuckled bitterly. “I thought yer brother had ya somewhat fixed. Ya think they gonna let anyone out here alive, yer more crazy than ever.” He’d risen up again to rain more mayhem and death over the Purplebellies.

“You are willing to fight for me; even to die. Why?” she’d asked the big mercenary when he’d reloaded again.

He’d just looked at her with a gaze she couldn’t determine and had shrugged:  
“Like Mal always said, yer crew. And crew’s almost like family. Never had a naggin’ ‘lil sister like ya. And b’sides, ‘s not only for ya, I’m not planning on dying neither.”

“But you will.”

“Yeah.” He had shrugged again and returned to the shooting “Pro’bly.”

“Thank you, Jayne.” She hadn’t been sure if he’d heard her, but for a second she’d seen a grim smile flashing over his face.

It hadn’t been long until some Alliance shooter had gotten lucky and took out Zoe. The first mate had gone down with a sigh and a small smile.

When the captain had realized that his first mate was dead he’d jumped up with a raging roar, not caring about cover or survival anymore, just determined to kill. He’d fulfilled that desire on some of their enemies before he’d gotten shot himself.

Seeing his captain going down, Jayne had picked up Mal’s howl the bullet had ended and answered furiously the rapid gunfire that now was concentrated on him as the last man standing with his own.

Aim, shoot, kill. Aim, shoot, kill.

Despite the noise of the fight River had heard the grinding of his teeth and she’d felt the loss of the crew almost physically.

Aim, shoot, kill. Aim, shoot….

“Captain has lost his soul. He’d gone all Reaver.”

The grave tone of her voice and the mention of Reavers had had Jayne startled for a second, long enough for someone to place a bullet into his shoulder.

He’d lost his weapon at the impact and seconds later they had been captured by the Alliance and almost four men had been necessary to hold the struggling Jayne down despite his injuries.

Moments after the fight had been over an Alliance operative had entered Serenity to take River with him who wasn’t more than a frightened human right now and nothing like the Alliance trained assassin she ought to be.

“What are we going to do with this one? He’s strong, maybe we can alter him, too. Make him a mate…” The operative had directed to a man with blue gloves that just had followed him into Serenity’s cargo bay.

The blue handed man had turned into Jayne’s direction unimpressed by the feral growl Jayne had let out and had laid two fingers on the mercenary’s temple. Jayne’s face had immediately contorted in agony and the growl had turned into a tortured outcry.

Realization had hit her when the blue hand had let go of Jayne, who’d slumped into a panting mass, and had shook his head slightly to the unfinished question of the operative. “Unworthy.”

“Well then….” The operative had nodded to one of Jayne’s guards and River’s desperate scream rang in unison with one single shot.

“Time to come home, River.”

-.-.-.-.-

 

She had failed them. Failed them all. She was supposed to help them; save them with her Alliance-given skills, but she’d failed. Unable to move, shell-shocked by the knowledge that the Alliance still had such a power over her to start or disable her skills as they please.

Through the drug haze she felt the burning streak of a single tear gliding down her cheek. A blue thumb wiped it away gently.

“Don’t cry, my darling. Soon all emotions will be gone. Unnecessary ballast in the life you are going to live. The pride of Alliance science. We’re planning on creating a lot more like you. Maybe you’ll be the mother of a whole new species. Who’ll need Pax in the future? You already know how dangerous this is. We’ll have you, River. The future is you. You and your progeny. This is the last test, I promise. Don’t fight it anymore. It’ll be a relief.”

River closed her eyes when she felt another needle piercing her skin and the warm flow of something chemical swept through her veins. Memories and emotions blurred before they disappeared completely and she gave in.


End file.
